Serbia before and after WW2

19/06/2021

Provinces of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and division during the occupation

By Miloslav Samardzic

Provinces (banovine) of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia After establishment, in 1918, Yugoslavia’s name was Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Later it was divided into administrative provinces (banovine) Drava Banovina, in the northwest, belonged to the Slovenes.

In 1939 two Croat provinces, Sava and Littoral, were enlarged and joined creating Province of Croatia (Banovina Hrvatska) with Zagreb as the capital. The other six provinces were Serbian, but the war prevented unifying them into one province that would have been called Serbian Lands with the capital in Skoplje.

Division of Yugoslavia during the occupation the Axis Powers after the occupation on April of 1941 and their division of Yugoslavia. Slovenia was divided between Italians, Germans and Hungarians. Italy got a larger part of the Adriatic coast. The newly formed “Independent State of Croatia“ got most of the territories- two entire and a part of the third Serbian province. Germans occupied Central Serbia and Banat, which Romanians refused to overtake (“Serbs are our friends“ – they said to Hitler). Bulgaria and Albania occupied parts of Southern Serbian provinces and Montenegro is placed under Italian Protectorate.